Wembley Stadium to Stage Euro 2020 Final: Full Details on Selected Host Cities

UEFA president Michel Platini announced on Friday that Wembley will host the final three games of the European Championships in 2020, a competition that will span an unprecedented 13 countries.

The famous English stadium, known across the world due to its heritage and striking architecture, was selected to host both semi-finals and the final of the event, as noted by Martyn Ziegler of the Press Association and B/R UK: 

Wembley won the right to host the tournament's showpiece matches after Germany's Allianz Arena was withdrawn from the bidding, per Ben Rumsby of The Telegraph:

The full list of host cities for the tournament was also announced, per BBC Sport, as shown in the table below: 

City	Country
Final and semi-final hosts
London	England
Quarter-final hosts (in addition to 3 group games)
Munich	Germany
Baku	Azerbaijan
St Petersburg	Russia
Rome	Italy
Last-16 hosts (in addition to 3 group games)
Dublin	Ireland
Brussels	Belgium
Glasgow	Scotland
Copenhagen	Denmark
Bilbao	Spain
Budapest	Hungary
Bucharest	Romania
Amsterdam	Netherlands

Paolo Bruno/Getty Images

There was always going to be a group of cities disappointed by Friday's announcement, and among those to miss out were Minsk, Sofia, Skopje, Jerusalem, Stockholm and Cardiff.

Wales' failure was arguably the greatest shock of the process, after Scotland beat their bid by one vote, per Owen Gibson of The Guardian:

European football fans have grown accustomed to watching showpiece events at England's national stadium. Both the 2011 and 2013 Champions League finals were played at Wembley, while all FA Cup, League Cup and play-off finals take place in the 90,000-seater.

The last international final to take place at the new stadium saw Mexico beat Brazil 2-1 in the gold-medal match at the 2012 London Olympics. England last hosted the European Championships in 1996, a competition which saw Germany triumph on the old Wembley's hallowed turf.

Infrastructure within the country remains primed for international events, as both the football stadia and travel routes worked excellently during the Olympics. England were among the favourites to win the hosting rights for both the 2006 and 2018 World Cups, but they failed to land either event, as reported by Martin Lipton of the Mirror.

Tom Dulat/Getty Images

Grey Dyke, chairman of the Football Association, confirmed England will bid for the World Cup once more, but admits it will be difficult to do so while Sepp Blatter remains in charge of FIFA, per Lipton's report:

"

We will bid again for the World Cup at some stage. It is quite hard to see England organising and winning a World Cup bid at the moment, while Sepp Blatter is (FIFA's) president. We have said that we won’t bid while Mr Blatter is there, but the next time there is a World Cup decision every country will have a vote instead of it being just the Executive (panel).

"

Blatter's willingness to run for his fifth consecutive FIFA presidency, as reported by Swiss newspaper Blick (via BBC Sport), ensures England's hopes of hosting the global competition may be some way off. Landing the Euro 2020 final will aid the nation's hopes of being the only hosts of Euro 2028, however, as noted by Lipton.

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

Michel Platini's grandiose plans to deliver a truly continental European competition remain controversial. The UEFA president's decision to move the major tournament away from one host—combined with adding eight teams to bulk the competition up to 24 nations—has previously been described as a "television-shaped, politically-driven" decision by Henry Winter of The Telegraph.

While England look set to benefit from this decision—the country wouldn't be hosting Euro 2020 matches without Platini's plans—the tournament atmosphere may be difficult to develop across the breadth of the continent.

One of football's greatest achievements is its ability to turn any host nation into an all-encompassing, welcoming party for travelling fans, something which will be difficult when the month's play will cross many borders. It is perhaps even more difficult for supporters to judge where their countries will be competing, meaning a less partisan crowd is likely to appear at the 2020 main event.

Alik Keplicz/Associated Press

Even so, Wembley will provide an excellent backdrop for the latter stages. The impressive stadium creates a rapturous atmosphere at its best and will allow stars to shine on arguably the most historic footballing stage of them all, undoubtedly an important factor in UEFA's decision to bring the final to England.